A thread for posting Ancient Greek poetry.I'll start with my beloved Orphic Hymns, posting one every day or so. I love them as poetry and they are also a good primary source for Greek mythology. When I can, I'd like to enliven the posts with pictures of Greek art that represent relevant to the hymn mythological characters.

Statue of Demeter, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

TO MUSÆUS

Attend Musæus to my sacred song,
and learn what rites to sacrifice belong.
Jove [Zeus] I invoke, the Earth [Gaia], and Solar Light [Helios],
the Moon's [Mene] pure splendor, and the Stars of night;
Thee Neptune [Poseidon], ruler of the sea profound, dark-hair'd, whose waves begirt the solid ground;
Ceres [Demeter] abundant, and of lovely mien,
and Proserpine [Phersephone] infernal Pluto's [Haides] queen
The huntress Dian [Artemis], and bright Phœbus rays, far-darting God, the theme of Delphic praise;
And Bacchus [Dionysos], honour'd by the heav'nly choir,
and raging Mars [Ares], and Vulcan [Hephaistos] god of fire;
The mighty pow'r who rose from foam to light, and Pluto potent in the realms of night;
With Hebe young, and Hercules the strong, and you to whom the cares of births [Eileithyia] belong:
Justice [Dikaisune] and Piety [Eusebia] august I call, and much-fam'd nymphs, and Pan the god of all.
To Juno [Hera] sacred, and to Mem'ry [Mnemosyne] fair, and the chaste Muses I address my pray'r;
The various year, the Graces [Kharites], and the Hours [Horai],
fair-hair'd Latona [Leto], and Dione's pow'rs;
Armed Curetes, household Gods [Korybantes, Kouretes, Kabeiroi] I call,
with those [Soteroi] who spring from Jove [Zeus] the king of all:
Th' Idæan Gods, the angel of the skies, and righteous Themis, with sagacious eyes;
With ancient Night [Nyx], and Day-light [Hemara] I implore,
and Faith [Pistis], and Justice [Dike] dealing right adore;
Saturn [Kronos] and Rhea, and great Thetis too, hid in a veil of bright celestial blue:
I call great Ocean [Okeanos], and the beauteous train of nymphs, who dwell in chambers of the main;
Atlas the strong, and ever in its prime, vig'rous Eternity [Aion], and endless Time [Khronos];
The Stygian pool [Styx], and placid Gods [Meilikhoi] beside,
and various Genii [Daimones], that o'er men preside;
Illustrious Providence [Pronoia], the noble train of dæmon forms, who fill th' ætherial plain;
Or live in air, in water, earth, or fire, or deep beneath the solid ground retire.
Bacchus [Dionysos] and Semele the friends of all, and white Leucothea of the sea I call;
Palæmon bounteous, and Adrastria great, and sweet-tongu'd Victory [Nike], with success elate;
Great Esculapius [Asklepios], skill'd to cure disease,
and dread Minerva [Athene], whom fierce battles please;
Thunders [Brontoi] and Winds [Anemoi] in mighty columns pent,
with dreadful roaring struggling hard for vent;
Attis, the mother of the pow'rs on high, and fair Adonis, never doom'd to die,
End and beginning he is all to all, these with propitious aid I gently call;
And to my holy sacrifice invite, the pow'r who reigns in deepest hell and night;
I call Einodian Hecate, lovely dame, of earthly, wat'ry, and celestial frame,
Sepulchral, in a saffron veil array'd, leas'd with dark ghosts that wander thro' the shade;
Persian, unconquerable huntress hail! The world's key-bearer never doom'd to fail
On the rough rock to wander thee delights, leader and nurse be present to our rites
Propitious grant our just desires success, accept our homage, and the incense bless.

[1] I.
TO THE GODDESS PROTHYRÆA

The Fumigation from Storax.
O venerable goddess, hear my pray'r, for labour pains are thy peculiar care;
In thee, when stretch'd upon the bed of grief, the sex as in a mirror view relief.
Guard of the race, endued with gentle mind, to helpless youth, benevolent and kind;
Benignant nourisher; great Nature's key belongs to no divinity but thee.
Thou dwell'st with all immanifest to sight, and solemn festivals are thy delight.
Thine is the talk to loose the virgin's zone, and thou in ev'ry work art seen and known.
With births you sympathize, tho' pleas'd to see the numerous offspring of fertility;
When rack'd with nature's pangs and sore distress'd, the sex invoke thee, as the soul's sure rest;
For thou alone can'st give relief to pain, which art attempts to ease, but tries in vain;
Assisting goddess [Eileithyia], venerable pow'r, who bring'st relief in labour's dreadful hour;
Hear, blessed Dian [Artemis], and accept my pray'r, and make the infant race thy constant care.

[3] III.
TO HEAVEN [OURANOS]

The Fumigation from Frankincense.
Great Heav'n [Ouranos], whose mighty frame no respite knows, father of all, from whom the world arose:
Hear, bounteous parent, source and end of all, forever whirling round this earthly ball;
Abode of Gods, whose guardian pow'r surrounds th' eternal World with ever during bounds;
Whose ample bosom and encircling folds the dire necessity of nature holds.
Ætherial, earthly, whose all-various frame azure and full of forms, no power can tame.
All-seeing Heav'n, progenitor of Time [Kronos], forever blessed, deity sublime,
Propitious on a novel mystic shine, and crown his wishes with a life divine.

Orphic Hymn #4:I couldn't find aa Ancient Greek representation of Aether, this is a representation of his mother- Nyx-Night. I find very significant that the Greeks believed that Light was born from Night and Darkness - very philosophical and poetic in the same time.

[4] IV.
TO FIRE [AITHER]

The Fumigation from Saffron.
O Ever untam'd Fire [Aither], who reign'st on high in Jove's [Zeus'] dominions ruler of the sky;
The glorious sun with dazzling lustre bright, and moon and stars from thee derive their light;
All taming pow'r, ætherial shining fire, whose vivid blasts the heat of life inspire:
The world's best element, light-bearing pow'r, with starry radiance shining, splendid flow'r,
O hear my suppliant pray'r, and may thy frame be ever innocent, serene, and tame.

Aether in the Greek mythology was a Protogenos - one of the elemental gods:

"...AITHER (or Aether) was the Protogenos
(first-born elemental god) of the bright, glowing upper air of heaven -
the substance of light. Above him lay the solid dome of the sky-god, Ouranos, and below, the transparent mists of earth-bound air. In the evening his mother Nyx drew her veil of darkness between the aither and the aer to bring night to man. In the morn his sister-wife Hemera dispersed these mists, revealing the shining blue aither of day. Night and day were regarded as quite independent of the sun in the ancient cosmogonies.

Aither was one of the three "airs". The middle air was Aer or Khaos, a colourless mist which enveloped the mortal world. The lower air was Erebos,
the mists of darkness, which enveloped the dark places beneath the
earth and the realm of the dead. The third was the upper air of aither,
the mist of light, home of the gods of heaven. It enveloped the mountain
peaks, clouds, stars, sun and moon. The stars themselves were said to
be formed from the concentrated fires of aither.His female counterpart was Aithre, Titanis of the Clear Blue Sky, mother of the Sun and Moon..." http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Aither.html

Ouranos was a son of Aether ; and his parents were Erebos /god of Darkness/ and Nyx - the same Nix/Night from hymn #3. Couple of primary sources on that, the link I posted has more:

"..Alcman, Fragment 61 (from Eustathius on Iliad) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C7th B.C.) :
"The father of Ouranos (Heaven), as was said already, is called
Akmon [probably Aither] because heavenly motion is untiring (akamatos);
an the sons of Ouranos are Akmonidai: the ancients make these two points
clear. Alcman, they say, tells that the heaven belongs to Akmon."

Alcman, Fragment 5 (from Scholia) :
"So at the same moment there came into being Poros [Khaos?] and
Tekmor [Gaia?] and Skotos [Erebos]. `Amar (Day) and Melana (Moon) and
third, Skotos (Darkness) as far as Marmarugas (Flashings) [Aither and/or
the Stars?]' : days does not mean simply day, but contains the idea of
the sun. Previously there was only darkness, and afterwards, when it had
been differentiated, light came into being."

Protogonus, according to the Orphic myth, was the first-created-god-creator:

"...Creator god. Protogonus (Protogonos) was the first god to be born from the Cosmic Egg (World Egg), which Chaos and Aether
had reproduced, according to the Orphic Creation Myths. Protogonus
named mean "First Born", and it was he who had created the universe.

Protogonus have three different names. Protogonus was popularly
known by another name as Phanes, the golden-winged god of light and
love. His other names were Ericapaeus (Power) and Metis (Thought). These
three different names represent the three different aspects of
Protogonus' powers.Protogonus was the first supreme ruler of the universe.

Most scholars identified Phanes/Protogonus with Eros, the Greek primeval god of love. Like in Hesiod's account about the Creation, Eros sprung out of Chaos at the same time as Gaea and Tartarus,
so Eros was a primeval god, unlike later myths, where he was known to
the Hellenistic as the mischievous son of Aphrodite (Venus), whom the
Roman called Cupid. As Eros, he was often called Bromios (Thunderer), which is the same epithet as Dionysus.There is some confusion of whether Nyx
(Night) was his mother, wife or daughter. The source that I have with
me is that Nyx was his daughter, whom he had sex with, to beget Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Gaea).

As Phanes, he was seen a sun god or the god of light. Phanes has
four eyes, and heads of various animals. Phanes was depict as a sexless
god or a god with both sexes (androgynous being, ie a Demiurge) with
golden wings. Phanes was also invisible but he radiated pure light.

Protogonus or Phanes had also been identified with the god Zagreus or Dionysus, or he is Dionysus.
When Zeus became powerful, he had swallowed Protogonus and all things
that Protogonus had created. Zeus then recreated a new world. Then Zeus
copulated with his own daughter, Persephone, and Protogonus was reborn
as Zagreus or Dionysus. But the Titans had killed Zagreus, but Zeus
saved the heart. Zeus swallowed Zagreus' heart and then mated with a
mortal woman named Semele, and she gave birth to Dionysus, the
reincarnation of Protogonus/Zagreus...." http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/primeval.html#Protogonus

The "Egg" that is mentioned here /Protogonus - egg-born/ is the Cosmic Egg, that was the beginning of the world, according to the Orphic creation myth:

"...Behind the myth, is the religion of salvation for the human's soul. This religion was named after the mythical singer, Orpheus, who was reputedly said to be the founder of the Orphic Mysteries.In the beginning, there was Time, which the Greeks called Chronus
or Khronos (Χρόνος). This was a period called the Unaging Time, when
nothing existed and nothing grew old; indeterminate and (almost)
limitless time, which some people would call Aeon. Existing at the same
time as Chronus was Adrasteia (Ἀδραστεια), or Ananke (Ἀνάγκη), meaning
"Necessity".

Chronus and Adrasteia combined to create primordial Spirit and Matter, which were called Aether (Αἰθήρ) and Chaos
(Χάος). (Hesiod had referred to Aether as the upper atmosphere, where
the air was clean and pure; he referred to Aether as male entity, while
in the Orphic myth, Aether was seen as female being. Chaos was
fathomless void, abyss or the yawning gap. With Hesiod, Chaos was a male
primordial being, whereas in Orphic myth, the role had changed.) A
third primordial being came out of Time and Necessity, Erebus
– "Darkness". Chronus then combined with Aether, or possibly with Chaos
and Aether, so the primeval beings caused mists to form and solidify
into a Cosmic Egg....

...The Cosmic Egg was the first definable matter that was created
out of infinity. The World Egg was gigantic and silver in colour. When
the great resplendent, silver Egg hatched, out sprang Protogonus
(Πρωτογονυς), which literally means First-born, the first god.
According to one Neo-Platonist writer, the Egg shell split in two: the
two shells forming heaven and earth...." http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/creation.html#Orphic

The Egg is a very old symbol of creation-life-eternal-life - if was this milllenia before Christianity, and Christianity absorbed it as one of it's symbols /Easter/; it was found in the creation myths of Ancient Egypt. Persia and India.

[6] VI.
TO THE STARS [ASTRON]

The Fumigation from Aromatics.
With holy voice I call the stars [Astron] on high, pure sacred lights and genii of the sky.
Celestial stars, the progeny of Night [Nyx], in whirling circles beaming far your light,
Refulgent rays around the heav'ns ye throw, eternal fires, the source of all below.
With flames significant of Fate ye shine, and aptly rule for men a path divine.
In seven bright zones ye run with wand'ring flames, and heaven and earth compose your lucid frames:
With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright forever shining thro' the veil of Night.
Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires! Propitious shine on all my just desires;
These sacred rites regard with conscious rays, and end our works devoted to your praise.

Side A: The Astra Planeta (gods of
the five wandering stars) dive into the sea from their perches in heaven
as the sun-god Helios rides into the sky, driving his four horse
chariot. The fifth planet (not shown in this image) is Eosphoros, the
star Venus, last of the Astra to leave the heavens.Side B: Eos chasing Kephalos (not shown)..."http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/T30.1.html

They were born by Nyx, the Night - light is born by darkness...

This one is obviously not Ancient Greek art, but is so beautiful - and I decided to post it anyway - I love beauty.

[7] VII. TO THE SUN [HELIOS]

The Fumigation from Frankinsence and Manna.
Hear golden Titan, whose eternal eye with broad survey, illumines all the sky.
Self-born, unwearied in diffusing light, and to all eyes the mirrour of delight:
Lord of the seasons, with thy fiery car and leaping coursers, beaming light from far:
With thy right hand the source of morning light, and with thy left the father of the night.
Agile and vig'rous, venerable Sun, fiery and bright around the heav'ns you run.
Foe to the wicked, but the good man's guide, o'er all his steps propitious you preside:
With various founding, golden lyre, 'tis mine to fill the world with harmony divine.
Father of ages, guide of prosp'rous deeds, the world's commander, borne by lucid steeds,
Immortal Jove [Zeus], all-searching, bearing light, source of existence, pure and fiery bright
Bearer of fruit, almighty lord of years, agil and warm, whom ev'ry pow'r reveres.
Great eye of Nature and the starry skies, doom'd with immortal flames to set and rise
Dispensing justice, lover of the stream, the world's great despot, and o'er all supreme.
Faithful defender, and the eye of right, of steeds the ruler, and of life the light:
With founding whip four fiery steeds you guide, when in the car of day you glorious ride.
Propitious on these mystic labours shine, and bless thy suppliants with a life divine.

Hyperion was the god of light, son of Ouranos and Gaia; Thea, his wife, was a goddess of sight and light - very telling dichotomy, since one cannot see without light. Pallas was god of warcraft:"...PALLAS was the Titan god
(perhaps) of warcraft and the Greek campaign season of late spring and
early summer. He was the father of Victory, Rivalry, Strength and Power
by Styx (Hate), children who turned to the side of Zeus during the
Titan-War. Pallas' name was derived from the Greek word pallô meaning "to brandish (a spear).".." http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPallas.html

And couple of primary sources on Selene and the Nemeian Lion:"...Aelian, On Animals 12. 7 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.) :

"They say that the Lion of Nemea fell from the moon (selene).
At any rate Epimenides [C6th B.C. poet] also has these words : `For I
am sprung from fair-tressed Selene the Moon, who in a fearful shudder
shook off the savage lion in Nemea, and brought him forth at the bidding
of Queen Hera.'"

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 30 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"The Nemean Lion, an invulnerable monster, which Luna
[Selene] had nourished in a two-mouthed cave, he [Herakles] slew and
took the pelt for defensive covering."

Seneca, Hercules Furens 83 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :
"Let Luna [Selene the moon] in the sky produce still
other monstrous creatures. But he [Herakles] has conquered such as these
[i.e. the Nemeian lion, born of the moon]."..." Ibid.

[9] IX.
TO NATURE [PHUSIS]

The Fumigation from Aromatics.
Nature [Phusis], all parent, ancient, and divine, O Much-mechanic mother, art is thine;
Heav'nly, abundant, venerable queen, in ev'ry part of thy dominions seen.
Untam'd, all-taming, ever splendid light, all ruling, honor'd, and supremly bright.
Immortal, first-born [Protogeneia], ever still the same, nocturnal, starry, shining, glorious dame.
Thy feet's still traces in a circling course, by thee are turn'd, with unremitting force.
Pure ornament of all the pow'rs divine, finite and infinite alike you shine;
To all things common and in all things known, yet incommunicable and alone.
Without a father of thy wond'rous frame, thyself the father whence thy essence came.
All-flourishing, connecting, mingling soul, leader and ruler of this mighty whole.
Life-bearer, all-sustaining, various nam'd, and for commanding grace and beauty fam'd.
Justice, supreme in might, whose general sway the waters of the restless deep obey.
Ætherial, earthly, for the pious glad, sweet to the good, but bitter to the bad.
All-wife, all bounteous, provident, divine, a rich increase of nutriment is thine;
Father of all, great nurse, and mother kind, abundant, blessed, all-spermatic mind:
Mature, impetuous, from whose fertile seeds and plastic hand, this changing scene proceeds.
All-parent pow'r, to mortal eyes unseen, eternal, moving, all-sagacious queen.
By thee the world, whose parts in rapid flow, like swift descending streams, no respite know,
On an eternal hinge, with steady course is whirl'd, with matchless, unremitting force.
Thron'd on a circling car, thy mighty hand holds and directs, the reins of wide command.
Various thy essence, honor'd, and the best, of judgement too, the general end and test.
Intrepid, fatal, all-subduing dame, life-everlasting, Parca, breathing flame.
Immortal, Providence, the world is thine, and thou art all things, architect divine.
O blessed Goddess, hear thy suppliant's pray'r, and make my future life, thy constant care;
Give plenteous seasons, and sufficient wealth, and crown my days with lasting, peace and health.

Phusis was a Protogenus goddess of Nature. Here some other primary sources on her:

"...Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 3 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :
"[From a description of an ancient Greek painting :] No doubt you see the grove around the spring, the work of wise Nature (physis), I believe; for Nature (physis) is sufficient for all she desires, and has no need of art; indeed it is she who is the origin of arts themselves."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 650 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Then Phusis (Nature), who governs the universe and recreates
its substance [after the world-shattering battle between Zeus and
Typhoeus], closed up the gaping rents in earth’s broken surface, and
sealed once more with the bond of indivisible joinery those island
cliffs which had been rent from their bed."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41. 51 ff :
"Here [Beroe in Lebanon] dwelt a people agemates with
the dawn, whom Phusis (Nature) by her own breeding, in some unwedded
way, begat without bridal, without wedding, fatherless, motherless,
unborn: when the atoms were mingled in fourfold combination, and the
seedless ooze shaped a clever offspring by comingling water with fiery
heat and air [the four elements--Air, Earth, Water, Fire], and quickened
the teeming mud with the breath of life. To these Phusis (Nature) gave
perfect shape . . . now first appeared the golden crop of men [the
Golden Race of Mankind] brought forth in the image of the gods, with the
roots of their stock in the earth. And these dwelt in the city of
Beroe, that primordial seat which Kronos (Time) himself builded."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41. 98 ff :
"[Aphrodite] newly born from the brine; when the water
impregnated from the furrow of Ouranos was delivered of deepsea
Aphrodite; when without marriage, the seed plowed the flood with male
fertility, and of itself shaped the foam into a daughter, and Phusis
(Nature) was the midwife--coming up with the goddess there was that
embroidered strap which ran round her loins like a belt [the cestus of
love], set about the queen’s body in a girdle of itself."..."

"...PAN was the god
of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music.
He wandered the hills and mountains of Arkadia playing his pan-pipes and
chasing Nymphs. His unseen presence aroused feelings of panic in men passing through the remote, lonely places of the wilds.

The god was a lover of nymphs, who commonly fled from his advances. Syrinx ran and was transformed into a clump of reeds, out of which the god crafted his famous pan-pipes. Pitys escaped and was turned into a mountain fir, the god's sacred tree. Ekho spurned his advances and fading away left behind only her voice to repeat forever the mountain cries of the god.

Pan was depicted as a man with the horns, legs and
tail of a goat, and with thick beard, snub nose and pointed ears. He
was often appears in the retinue of Dionysos alongside the other rustic gods. Greeks in the classical age associated his name with the word pan meaning "all". However, it true origin lies in an old Arkadian word for rustic...."http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Pan.html

I think this mosaic is from Pompeii, but not sure, the site didn't say

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E7. 39 :
"Some say that Penelope [the wife of Odysseus] was seduced by
Antinous [one the suitors], and returned by Odysseus to her father
Ikarios (Icarius), and that when she reached Mantineia in Arkadia, she
bore Pan, to Hermes."
[N.B. According to other sources, Penelope the mother of Pan was a nymphe, and not the wife of Odysseus.]

Herodotus, Histories 2. 153. 1 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"Among the Greeks, Herakles, Dionysos, and Pan are held to be
the youngest of the gods . . . and Pan the son of Penelope, for
according to the Greeks Penelope and Hermes were the parents of Pan, was
[first worshipped in Greece] about eight hundred years before me
[Herodotus], and thus of a later date than the Trojan war . . . Had
Dionysus son of Semele and Pan son of Penelope appeared in Hellas and
lived there to old age, like Herakles the son of Amphitryon, it might
have been said that they too (like Herakles) were but men, named after
the older Pan and Dionysus, the gods of antiquity; but as it is . . .
for Pan, the Greeks do not know what became of him after his birth. It
is therefore plain to me that the Greeks learned the names of these two
gods later than the names of all the others, and trace the birth of both
to the time when they gained the knowledge."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 30. 2 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"They say that Pan was so surnamed [Sinoeis] after a
[Arkadian] Nymphe Sinoe, who with others of the Nymphai nursed him on
her own account."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 67 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Two other Panes [in fact just Pan in his two aspects as
Hunter and Shepherd], the sons of Hermes, who divided his love between
two Nymphai; for one he visited the bed of Sose, the highland
prophetess, and begat a son inspired with the divine voice of prophecy,
Agreus (Hunter), well versed in the beast-slaying sport of the hunt; the
other was Nomios (Shepherd), whom the pasturing sheep loved well, one
practised in the shepherd's pipe, for whom Hermes sought the bed of
Penelope the country Nymphe. Along with these came Phorbas to join
their march, savage and insatiate."
[N.B. Phorbas means "giver of grazing," but is also a play on the word phobos, "fear," the aspect of Pan which inspires irrational panic in the lonely wilds.]..." Ibid

[11] XI.
TO HERCULES [HERAKLES]

The Fumigation from Frankincense.
..."Hear, pow'rful, Hercules [Herakles] untam'd and strong, to whom vast hands, and mighty works belong,
Almighty Titan, prudent and benign, of various forms, eternal and divine,
Father of Time [khronos], the theme of gen'ral praise, ineffable, ador'd in various ways.
Magnanimous, in divination skill'd and in the athletic labours of the field.
'Tis thine strong archer, all things to devour, supreme, all-helping, all-producing pow'r;
To thee mankind as their deliv'rer pray, whose arm can chase the savage tribes away:
Uweary'd, earth's best blossom, offspring fair, to whom calm peace, and peaceful works are dear.
Self-born, with primogenial fires you shine, and various names and strength of heart are thine.
Thy mighty head supports the morning light, and bears untam'd, the silent gloomy night;
From east to west endu'd with strength divine, twelve glorious labours to absolve is thine;
Supremely skill'd, thou reign'st in heav'n's abodes, thyself a God amid'st th' immortal Gods.
With arms unshaken, infinite, divine, come, blessed pow'r, and to our rites incline;
The mitigations of disease convey, and drive disasterous maladies away.
Come, shake the branch with thy almighty arm, dismiss thy darts and noxious fate disarm...."

[12] XII.
TO SATURN [KRONOS]

The Fumigation from Storax.
Etherial father, mighty Titan, hear, great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere:
Endu'd with various council, pure and strong, to whom perfection and decrease belong.
Consum'd by thee all forms that hourly die, by thee restor'd, their former place supply;
The world immense in everlasting chains, strong and ineffable thy pow'r contains
Father of vast eternity, divine, O mighty Saturn [Kronos], various speech is thine:
Blossom of earth and of the starry skies, husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wife.
Obstetric Nature, venerable root, from which the various forms of being shoot;
No parts peculiar can thy pow'r enclose, diffus'd thro' all, from which the world arose,
O, best of beings, of a subtle mind, propitious hear to holy pray'rs inclin'd;
The sacred rites benevolent attend, and grant a blameless life, a blessed end.

Kronos/Khronos in the Orphic mythology was essentially the same with Cronos, the son of Ouranos and father of Zeus and all gods and goddess of the second generation; but not identical with him. However, in the Orphic perspective Kronos was much more than that:

"...KHRONOS (or Chronus) was the Protogenos
(primeval god) of time, a divinity who emerged self-formed at the
beginning of creation in the Orphic cosmogonies. Khronos was imagined as
an incorporeal god, serpentine in form, with three heads--that of a
man, a bull, and a lion. He and his consort, serpentine Ananke
(Inevitability), circled the primal world-egg in their coils and split
it apart to form the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky. Khronos and
Ananke continued to circle the cosmos after creation-their passage
driving the circling of heaven and the eternal passage of time.

The figure of Khronos was essentially a cosmological doubling of the Titan Kronos (also "Father Time"). The Orphics occasionally combined Khronos with their creator-god Phanes, and identified him with Ophion.
His equivalent in the Phoenician cosmogony was probably Olam (Eternal
Time), or Oulomos, as his name appears in Greek transcriptions.

Khronos was represented in Greco-Roman mosaic as
Aion, "eternity" personified. He stands against the sky holding a wheel
inscribed with the signs of the zodiac. Beneath his feet Gaia (Mother
Earth) is usually seen reclining. The poet Nonnus describes Aion as an
old man with long white hair and beard. Mosaics, however, present a
youthful figure...."http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Khronos.html

For one, the Orphic Chronos was a Protogenus, emerged fully and self-formed, was incorporeal, with 3 heads /snake's, bull's and lion's - one can remember here the bull from Catal Huyuk and the island of Crete/, and with his wife split the Cosmic Egg - an image heavily laden with symbolism - Time and Inevitabilty splitting the Cosmos to create the World.

Kronos receives the omphalos from Rhea, thinking that it was Zeus, Athenian vase

Rhea was one of the aspects of the Great Mother Goddess - the most ancient aspect:"...RHEA was the Titanis
mother of the gods, and a goddess of female fertility, motherhood, and
generation. Her name means "flow" and "ease." As the wife of Kronos
(Time), she represented the eternal flow of time and generations ; as
the great Mother (Meter Megale), the "flow" was menstrual blood, birth
waters, and milk. She was also a goddess of comfort and ease, a blessing
reflected in the common Homeric phrase "the gods who live at their ease
(rhea)."

In myth, Rhea was the wife of the Titan Kronos
and Queen of heaven. When her husband heard a prophecy that he would be
deposed by one of his children, he took to swallowing each of them as
soon as they were born. But Rhea bore her youngest, Zeus, in secret and
hid him away in a cave in Krete guarded by shield-clashing Kouretes. In his stead she presented Kronos with a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he promptly devoured.

Rhea was generally an Earth Goddess, that;s why she was identified with the Anatolian CybeleCybele, Roman statue

She was a Titanis, a daughter of Ouranos and Gaia; and mother of the second generation of gods - Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Demeter.Couple of primary sources on Rhea:"...Hesiod, Theogony 116 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 66. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :
"The Titanes numbered six men and five women, being born, as
certain writers of myths relate, of Ouranos and Ge, but according to
others, of one of the Kouretes and Titaia, from whom as their mother
they derive the name they have. The males were Kronos, Hyperion, Koios,
Iapetos, Krios and Okeanos, and their sisters were Rhea, Themis,
Mnemosyne, Phoibe and Tethys [he omits Theia]. Each one of them was the
discover of things of benefit to mankind, and because of the benefaction
they conferred upon all men they were accorded honours and everlasting
fame."Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Aether and Terra [were born various abstractions] . . .
[From Caelum (Ouranos) and Terra (Gaia) were born ?] Oceanus, Themis,
Tartarus, Pontus; the Titanes : Briareus, Gyes, Steropes, Atlas,
Hyperion, and Polus [Koios], Saturnus [Kronos], Ops [Rhea], Moneta
[Mnemosyne], Dione." [N.B. Hyginus' Preface survives only in
summary. The Titanes should be listed as children of Ouranos (Caelum)
and Gaia (Terra) not Aither and Gaia, but the notation to this effect
seems to have been lost in the transcription.]..."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 4 ff (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Because both Ge (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky) had given
him [Kronos] a prophetic warning that his rule would be overthrown by a
son of his own stock, he took to swallowing his children at birth. He
swallowed his first-born daughter Hestia, then Demeter and Hera, and
after Plouton and Poseidon . . .
[Later] Metis gave Kronos a drug, by which he was
forced to vomit forth first the stone and then the children he had
swallowed."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 4. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The Samians themselves hold that the goddess [Hera]
was born in the island by the side of the river Imbrasos under the
willow that even in my time grew in the Heraion (temple of Hera)."

Poseidon had a ginormous progeny, that included gods, Giants, animals and humans - the list is far too long to post it here, so here a link to it http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/PoseidonFamily.html . For some reason he seems to have be the preferred forebear for many kings, because almost every kingdom in Greece claimed him as a father to some of it's kings.

Homer, Iliad 15. 187 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"We are three brothers born by Rheia to Kronos, Zeus, and I
[Poseidon], and the third is Aides [Haides] lord of the dead men. All
was divided among us three ways, each given his domain. I [Poseidon]
when the lots were shaken drew the grey sea to live in forever; Aides
drew the lot of the mists and the darkness, and Zeus was allotted the
wide sky, in the cloud and the bright air. But earth and high Olympos
are common to all three."

Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th - 4th B.C.) :
"Aidoneus Polysemantor (Ruler of Many), is . . . your [Demeter's] own
brother and born of the same stock : also, for honour, he has that third
share which he received when division was made at the first, and is
appointed lord of those among whom he dwells."

Plato, Gorgias 523a ff (trans. Lamb) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"By Homer's account, Zeus, Poseidon, and Plouton [Haides] divided the
sovereignty amongst them when they took it over from their father
[Kronos]."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 7 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"The three gods [Zeus, Poseidon and Haides] overpowered the Titanes,
confined them in Tartaros . . . The gods then drew lots for a share of
the rule. Zeus won the lordship of the sky, Poseidon that of the sea,
and Plouton the rule of Hades’ realm."

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